Xbox One X Pre Order release delay, Games news and Price update as Scorpio hype fades

Although Xbox One X pre order pages are live, potential customers have been unable to purchase Microsoft's powerful new console that's planned to release on November 7, 2017.

In an ideal world, Microsoft would have started selling pre-order consoles as soon as it was announced at E3 2017, while it's taken nearly two months Xbox Boss Phil Spencer had recently told fans on Twitter that pre-orders "won't be too much longer" because "All approvals are done".

In an exclusive interview with We Write Things, Michael Goodman - director of digital media strategies at Strategy Analytics - took some time to discuss what could be behind pre-orders opening later than usual.

“I don’t know this for sure, but you gotta wonder about the governmental issues there. There’s been so many articles about government positions not being filled, is that what’s delaying things? I don’t know, but we’ve certainly read enough reports about that, that it makes me wonder if that’s what the issue [was]," Goodman said.

“It’s completely a supposition on my behalf and I don’t have any evidence whatsoever to support this, but it seems that the issue is more on the government side than the Microsoft side."

While it does look as though all issues have been resolved, it's also been over 10 days since Spencer said it "won't be too much longer".

It's possible then that Microsoft could be looking to make a spring a surprise pre-order announcement just before Gamescom later this month.

And you'd have to say if Microsoft opted to release the news this way, they'd also guarantee plenty of pre-order mentions alongside fellow Gamescom news for

Xbox One X E3 2017 Game Reveals

XBOX ONE X will have lots of games support when the November release date rolls around, including these exclusive and third-party titles.

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One of the more contentious problems with the Xbox One X, is the rather high price that Microsoft is asking fans to pay for the console. Just like Sony's PS4 Pro, Microsoft most likely will have a limited player base for the elite console.

Speaking to Gamingbolt last week, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities stated that he believes Microsoft won't be selling Xbox One X at a loss.

However, what was perhaps more interesting was the industry expert explaining why he believes Microsoft priced the Xbox One X so high and the troubles it could face as a result.

"I think that they’ve talked themselves into believing it’s so powerful, we just want it an don’t care what it costs. But I don’t think that’s how people make purchase decisions," explained Pachter.

"So a good example is a Porsche 911, it costs about $100,000, and a BMW 3 series costs $50,000. And the Porsche is faster, and it’s lower to the ground. But the BMW is nice enough, and it outsells the Porsche, because it is also cheaper. Period. Because half as much money is more affordable to people. So you can’t find a BMW owner who wouldn’t rather have a Porsche, but not at twice the price.

"So I think the Xbox One X is desirable, but it costs twice as much as an Xbox One S - why would you buy it? And Microsoft’s answer is, ‘you have a 4KTV, so of course you want one.’ And… maybe. But of those 10% 4KTV households, how many of them use their 4KTVs as their primary gaming screens?

"So I think they priced it at cost, they over engineered the thing, and they brought it out to beat Sony, and I don’t think anyone cares that it’s the most powerful console ever made.

One of the core principals of Microsoft's Xbox One X is the ability for the powerful new console to run games like never before seen on a home console with games capable of achieving full 4K resolution.

However, months before the console is even out, some developers are already experiencing certain limitations with the new machine.

Recently Killing Floor 2 developer Tripwire Interactive announced that the game would be coming to Xbox One consoles on August 29th, along with all of the previously released content packs (The Tropical Bash, The Descent and elements of The Summer Sideshow).

However, the press release also mentioned that Tripwire had been hard at work on some Xbox One X enhancements, including 4K support.

Unsure of what sort of 4K support the game would be offering, wccftech.com reached out to Tripwire Interactive for some more details and discovered that the game would only be played at 1800p resolution and not full 4K.

Dave Elder, Senior Graphics Programmer on Killing Floor 2 explained to wccftech.com that the decision was made because while they could have run at full 4K, the frame rate drop was "a bit too significant."

Elder also added that "Xbox One X was a very smooth and easy platform to develop for. It took very little engineering effort to get our base Xbox One game running on the Xbox One X" and that "1800p provides the optimal balance between visual quality and performance in Killing Floor 2."

By comparison, Killing Floor 2 on PlayStation 4 Pro also features 1800p resolution, with the only difference being the checkerboard rendering on PS4 Pro and native resolution on Xbox One X.

Leading up to the announcement at E3, Microsoft's mysterious Project Scorpio was building up an incredible level of hype amongst console gaming fans, but since the reveal of Xbox One X and subsequent pre-order delays, the allure is starting to fade.

No doubt when fans can start to pre-order this will build again, but Industry experts believe Microsoft need to act fast and in another interview with We Write Things, Strategy Analytics’ industry analyst Michael Goodman once again weighed into the situation.

Goodman's suggestion is that the hype needs to be picked up again and certainly well before the holiday season in order to guarantee high sales.

“For Microsoft, you’re launching an expensive new console and it has all these new bells and whistles with processing power and memory,” Goodman explained.

“You want to show it off. Maybe Anthem will show it off, but right now the hype machine is not really there. We’re a week away from August and five weeks from September where we really start to think about the holiday selling season. People starting buying for the holidays in October.”

With Microsoft recently partnering with Taco Bell for a massive Xbox One X giveaway starting on August 31st, it could be the clearest indication that pre-orders are just around the corner along with hopefully Microsoft big marketing offensive leading up to the November 7 release date.